HanSolo wrote on 2023-05-28, 14:57:

Life is strange. The other day I decided I need a GF4-MX440 for a future project. After going through my box of graphics cards I […]
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Life is strange. The other day I decided I need a GF4-MX440 for a future project. After going through my box of graphics cards I realized I didn't have one and bought a model from Gainward. Now, two weeks later, a friend showed up with a discarded PC he found. And that contained a nearly identical model from Albatron 😀
Geforce4_MX440.jpg

That PC also contained an interesting board: Albatron PX865PE Pro.
I was never much interested in Pentium 4 stuff so I don't know much about chipsets from that era. Maybe some experts here can tell me if that's a capable board. But from what I've found on the web so far it looks like that might be a good choice for a Pentium 4 system. The PC also came with a P4 3GHz.
Albatron_PX865PE_Pro.jpg

Can't have too many MX440s.

Honestly these are the cards I recommend whenever a normal, non collector wants a 9x machine. Very cheap, hyper reliable, excellent performance for 90s titles.

The motherboard seems to be a late P4/AGP board: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1114/6
It has most of the things one would look for in such a board such as SATA and USB2.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-05-27, 23:01:

an 8 bit floppy card with manual that can be set to secondary address, and supports HD floppies, then the ST-02 that also supports HD floppies, and has bootable SCSI interface.

I had a bit of an itch in the brain about that ST-02, quick google refs were telling me it had HD support, but there was a neuron going "But does it reallllly???" then found the ST-02 install guide on minus zero degrees that confirmed what I suspected... only when the system BIOS supports high density drives (ie not PC/XT and only 1.2 on XT286). The onboard BIOS does not have the extra floppy code patch. Anyhoo, since the controller is good for it, you can probably do some magic with drvparm or use a TSR to enable 1.2 and 1.44 reading under DOS 3.3 up, not bootable though on XT class. The other one seems good for it, it is after all solely a floppy card and has a BIOS. Just wondering though if that BIOS would support HD on the ST-02 if that was in as first floppy, and the other card set to second floppy. Hmmm.

Still nothing much about that SARC card, jumpers are "C/M" for the first, "PRT" for the next two and CG - EMU on the last. So gotta assume Color/Mono, LPT port address or IRQ settings, maybe both 5/7 320-340 or something, and CGA mode or Hercules emulation... I think maybe. Not sure if the header nearest the bracket gives you CGA composite out, or is lightpen only. Can anyone remind me what other manufacturers chips that some other SARC chips were relabels of?

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-05-28, 17:48:

Still nothing much about that SARC card, jumpers are "C/M" for the first, "PRT" for the next two and CG - EMU on the last. So gotta assume Color/Mono, LPT port address or IRQ settings, maybe both 5/7 320-340 or something, and CGA mode or Hercules emulation... I think maybe. Not sure if the header nearest the bracket gives you CGA composite out, or is lightpen only. Can anyone remind me what other manufacturers chips that some other SARC chips were relabels of?

Some questions about a Hercules card

Grzyb wrote on 2023-05-28, 17:55:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-05-28, 17:48:

Still nothing much about that SARC card, jumpers are "C/M" for the first, "PRT" for the next two and CG - EMU on the last. So gotta assume Color/Mono, LPT port address or IRQ settings, maybe both 5/7 320-340 or something, and CGA mode or Hercules emulation... I think maybe. Not sure if the header nearest the bracket gives you CGA composite out, or is lightpen only. Can anyone remind me what other manufacturers chips that some other SARC chips were relabels of?

Some questions about a Hercules card

Awesome, thanks very much, looks like it's gonna be that https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/v/P-R/50414.htm I was searching SARC against Stason and TH99 databases, but I think it was a case of "Google knows better" and not recognizing it as a word. Also in visual search I probably didn't ping it because the VRAM looks like a square in the crappy microhouse drawing, especially at reduced size.

Need to determine at some point the limits of that "EMU" mode. Also the quality of the CGA. Got a 5155 PC Portable to fix up, might be a card that adds a little flexibility to that, instead of stock CGA only.

new stash ... just arrived (fiday)
- pcie card x1300series / mic/ SB220 crative / hdd 160gb seagate 2.5"/512ddr2, +a PSU & AMD cooler

This is my first hardware purchase in maybe six months, mostly because prices on old hardware skyrocketed for no reason all of a sudden locally, and also because my attention shifted to other hobbies in the last few months..

But then I came across this listed as faulty for about 10 bucks and I went for it. All that I needed to do to fix it was replace the CMOS battery, so that was a net win for me. It came with a Celeron 600 which is basically useless aside from maybe as a testing CPU.

I need identification help with this. It seems to be a PCPartner AP133MS3-C910 however that model appears to have an onboard Ensoniq AudioPCI whereas this one has it unpopulated.. Also, the jumper locations are different compared to the motherboard, so I can't be sure what it is, exactly. Does anyone recognize the board?

Check the BIOS string (2A69 or 6A69 for example).

btw that looks very similar to ACorp's 6VIA82P, except that one had 3 SDR slots and a SMSC SIO chip.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-05-29, 08:11:

This is my first hardware purchase in maybe six months, mostly because prices on old hardware skyrocketed for no reason all of […]
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This is my first hardware purchase in maybe six months, mostly because prices on old hardware skyrocketed for no reason all of a sudden locally, and also because my attention shifted to other hobbies in the last few months..

But then I came across this listed as faulty for about 10 bucks and I went for it. All that I needed to do to fix it was replace the CMOS battery, so that was a net win for me. It came with a Celeron 600 which is basically useless aside from maybe as a testing CPU.

PCPartner AP133MS3-C910.jpg

I need identification help with this. It seems to be a PCPartner AP133MS3-C910 however that model appears to have an onboard Ensoniq AudioPCI whereas this one has it unpopulated.. Also, the jumper locations are different compared to the motherboard, so I can't be sure what it is, exactly. Does anyone recognize the board?

you're probably right - but maybe you have a revision or something made with slight variation for a pc builder

i quite like those celerons, sure having a P3 is better but for a great many applications and even games it in practice does just fine - depends on your vision for a build and what you'd have running on it

PcBytes wrote on 2023-05-29, 08:41:

Check the BIOS string (2A69 or 6A69 for example).

btw that looks very similar to ACorp's 6VIA82P, except that one had 3 SDR slots and a SMSC SIO chip.

I tested it with a POST card but without a monitor, I'll check the BIOS string tonight.

Bought an Abit Kt7A-Raid motherboard with an AMD Athlon 1.2GHz CPU to replace the failing motherboard in my Gateway Select 1000 PC.

johnvosh wrote on 2023-05-29, 10:09:

Bought an Abit Kt7A-Raid motherboard with an AMD Athlon 1.2GHz CPU to replace the failing motherboard in my Gateway Select 1000 PC.

From what I've seen on Youtube... you might have to desolder one of the serial ports on the KT7A-RAID, as the original mobo seems to lack one of them, and from what I've also seen, the I/O "shield" is embedded into the chassis (so it's not removable) - same applied (somewhat) to my GP6-400 as well.

I've just got a Sony Vaio PCV-RX402 for small money in absolute untinkered condition and I now want to run a clean setup with Windows XP.

Luckily the drivers are still saved in a separate folder on the Harddrive but the original Sony Software is missing 🙁
... and unfortunately Sony stopped to provide any software Support (e.g. download) for legacy systems on 31. of March 2023 - bad luck for me 🙁 🙁

A call for assistance - maybe anyone here that has the original installation CD/DVD for a PCV-RX4xx model or any similar Vaio model of this period?

So it turn's out that PSU (-from my last lot-buyed) had 2 bad cap's so not sure if it's ok (set it asside ) the rest of it worked. ( I think). total cost without shipping 10e

"A call for assistance - maybe anyone here that has the original installation CD/DVD for a PCV-RX4xx model or any similar Vaio model of this period?" - Ildonaldo , did you try the archive org site? should be original cd imgs there of vaio...

ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-05-29, 17:00:

So it turn's out that PSU (-from last lot) had 2 bad cap's so not sure if it's ok (set it asside ) the rest of it worked. ( I think). total cost without shipping .

Thank you, but it is not the PSU that ist the Problem, but the Software - I am looking for the original Installation-CD.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-05-29, 15:14:

johnvosh wrote on 2023-05-29, 10:09:

Bought an Abit Kt7A-Raid motherboard with an AMD Athlon 1.2GHz CPU to replace the failing motherboard in my Gateway Select 1000 PC.

From what I've seen on Youtube... you might have to desolder one of the serial ports on the KT7A-RAID, as the original mobo seems to lack one of them, and from what I've also seen, the I/O "shield" is embedded into the chassis (so it's not removable) - same applied (somewhat) to my GP6-400 as well.

Why not just drill/Dremel out the extra I/O on the case instead of removing the I/O from the motherboard?

Just a regular day at the "office". 😁

Robert B wrote on 2023-05-29, 19:23:

Just a regular day at the "office". :D […]
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Just a regular day at the "office". 😁

wow all those boards and cases, looks like good condition stuff, boards ready to go

Just got the first part of my upcoming win 98 system the Motherboard. Got a Gigabyte K8VT800M: I am also on the hunt for a cpu. I will either get a amd sempron 3100 or one of the athlon 64 CPU.

This build with NexGen motherboard and quite not interesting parts otherwise inside...

I really like this case. It's as big as my modern LianLi Lancool III but I think It will be good suited for some ultimate mid-90s build. Maybe I will even leave the NexGen inside as it's board which apparently was originally installed in it.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-05-29, 08:11:

This is my first hardware purchase in maybe six months ... listed as faulty for about 10 bucks... PCPartner AP133MS3-C910.jpg

I hope I wont offend you when I ask WHY? This is extreme budget pcchips level garbage with worst socket 370 level of performance possible with bad AGP implementation, and listed as broken at that. Why buy something like that? I fully understand collecting old high end gear, but parts that went by the millions into supermarket "deals"?